A stunt is a spectacular, difficult, dangerous and physical feat requiring a special skill or strength. It is performed for art's sake by someone (a stunt-man) who's in contract with the movie industry, or any other artistic activity. Stunts basically consist in jumping out of a car running at top speed, climbing on top of a high building, fighting with a real sword... When a movie creator must shoot an action scene but cannot afford to integrate into the live scene a computer-generated special effect, he hires a stunt-man to take the part of the actor for the dangerous sequence.

In the early ages of film-making, many actors, like Charlie Chaplin, used to perform their own stunts. But with movies implying higher and higher financial stakes, most actors were no longer allowed to perform their stunts. Indeed, given that insurance companies don't wanna take the risk of paying for an actor's injuries or death, the habit gradually faded away. Yet some actors like Jackie Chan, Tom Cruise or Jason Statham still insist on doing their own tricks!

Still, actors usually have their own stunt-double, a stunt-man or woman resembling in some aspects their lead actor. Harrison Ford has a stunty who replaced him in the tricky scenes of the 4 Indiana Jones! Doubles are often used in combat scenes, implying martial arts or the use of swords or in action movies like James Bond or Back to the Future. Many stunties died on set. Even though they're often harnessed to a wire, for the performing of vehicular stunts or stunts implying to jump from a great height, many lost their life because they failed to keep the timing of a choreography or because an unfortunate blast occurred.

When performing stunt for a career, stunt-men are known as stunt performers or daredevils. Their purpose is to blow an audience away by walking on the roof of a car in fire...